If you say so. I think I've been pretty clear about WHY I've said it.
Frankly I'm fed up the missing the point and over simplifications in politics across the board. Issues are deeply complex. Sometimes you can't always protect everyone. You do your best but you also have to understand that sometimes there are impossible situations where there are no winners.
Tourettes is one of those situations which can't be controlled.
But there is a persistent idea that there MUST be an apology, there MUST be a recognition of harm, there MUST some one responsible, there MUST be some one to blame. Sometimes theres just not.
Tbh, whilst I think the BBC might have handled it differently and perhaps better I STILL think that it wouldn't have been accepted and there STILL would have been a whole issue because the problem ultimately is that people do not want to accept people with Tourettes in society because they want to be faced with a difficult and unpalatable situation. BECAUSE they still have an agenda to push and they are determined to use the misfortune of someone vulnerable with Tourettes to do that. We also have a massive desire as a society for sanitisation and hiding things that don't fit with that. We'd rather pretend that it doesn't exist and erase it. All of this adds up to the issue with those with Tourettes ending up in a shitty situation though no fault of their own.
There has been a persistence on this thread to push the idea of Tourettes being associate with racism even whilst saying 'oh well i don't think there should be an apology'. It is still asking for an acknowledgment of wrong doing though. One that probably doesn't really exist.
This is a very rare situation where no one is ultimately wrong. Its just awful all round but it comes back to recognition - as per the equality act - in terms of who is most at risk and who is most vulnerable in that situation at that time.
Yes this is a situation where everyone does just have to walk away calmly and just get the fuck on with it. The lessons learned crap won't actually help those with Tourettes. The lessons learned crap won't change anything with regards to racism, because you actually have to have racism to do that.
What we learn from the situation is that muddying the waters with language only confuses matters. It doesn't reclaim shit. It leads to accusations where theres no real intent. It leads to situations where people think they can say things but it causes problems because of who said it being deemed unacceptable. Language needs to clear and accessible to all without this 'in crowd' or layered meanings issue because those create conflict points.
In the case of Tourettes we have people who have issues with communication full stop.
Communication is about verbal and visual cues. It is about social connections and relationships. Its about context and intent. Its about the overt and the implied.
Tourettes does not have a hidden underlying implied meaning - it does not reflect offensive views that a person might be hiding. Its context is a neurological condition that can't be controlled. It reflects socially accepted and already acknowledged understandings of the unacceptable. It has clear visual and verbal mannerisms which are not consistent with normal patterns of behaviour which we all know and recognise. There is no targeting nor intent. Its a manifestion of your worst nightmare of thought. And yet STILL we somehow have to ignore this, and 'acknowledge the suffering it causes to others'? Even though that actively makes the ticking and anxiety issues that drive Tourettes worse. Hmm. No. We need to recognise when we all just need to let things go even if it makes us upset or hurts us because actually otherwise it causes way more problems. Its not about proving a fucking point.
No. Sometimes we have to understand that we just need to walk away and deal with these difficult issues that Tourettes throws up in a more appropriate way and at a more appropriate time when that vulnerable person isn't going to get caught in the cross fire.